Does it or does it not work decently, in a room with moderate ambient light both from outside a few windows, and inside kitchen lights from 15 feet away?
Viewing situation:
11 foot Throw
8-10 feet view
No screen ( white painted wall )
96-100in picture
I know that the Epson 5020UB works very well with ambient light, but i really just need to know about the hw50 at this time...

The HW50 is my first projector but I will tell you my experience is that ANY light washes out the image of a projector (this is not specific to the HW50). Mine is in the basement with total light controlled environment and even turning on the lights on a dimmer swithc a little bit impacts the image. It is a very high lumens projector so I assume that something with lower lumens would suffer even more from ambient light. I would imagine that having multiple windows would wash out the picture a lot for any projector. Coming off a Panasonic VT Plasma, it was much less impacted by lights.

No front projector works well with ambient light, IMHO. Look at your screen in the lighted room. That is your black level. That white screen is the blackest black you'll ever get. It's just not acceptable, especially in this day of ultra high contrast projectors.

Having seen the Epson 5020UB but NOT yet seeing the HW50.... i know that i can watch the 5020 with ambient light and have it be still watchable just not as good as a darkened situation. Having said that, i guess what i really just need to know is if the Sony will be just too washed out compared to the 5020 in the same light while still holding good calibrated values. The price is fairly close to one another and if i can handle the brightness level of the sony, i would like to go that way instead.

hard to find someone who can say they have seen both of these projectors and if the hw50 can still be watched with SOME light coming in.

EDIT: I HAE seen the HW30 however, and i can say that one cannot handle any ambient light at all.... i know the 50 is stronger but i just dont know if it would be enough.

If your going to calibrate the 5020 and use the calibrate mode then it will be worse than the Sony. If however you use the bright modes on the 5020 it will put out more light than the Sony. The Sony from what I have read outputs more light then the epson when calibrated.

I plan on getting the Sony. I do not have a light controlled room, but I plan to get blackout curtains and my projector will be ceiling mounted 10-12 feet away which should be fine.

If you plan to not black out you windows and have a ton of ambient light then you really need to look into getting something like a black diamond screen. I saw a demo with the 5020 in a space with windows using a normal white screen and you could barely see the Image. When they put the black diamond in place it helped a lot. However it wasn't miracle and still looked bad in my opinion.

If you can control some of your light and get it moderately dim I think either projector will do well.

Ya i really need to get out and see the sony in a store as all i ahve seen is the hw30 and the 5020... from what i read the hw50 vs the 30 calibrated puts out about 200ish more lumens. But i have no idea visually what difference 200 makes.

I am in a similar boat where mine will be about 10-11 feet throw.. this is really a tough call.

so once you black out the windows, what else will be giving off ambient light for you ? At night where i am, i ahve no doubt the picture would be fine... but it is during the day, even with blinds on the windows that worries me.

I have an older DLP TV right now that is the Samsung HL61A750 LED DLP tv, and if i could get that same brightness from the sony projector, i would be totally solid. Though i think that DLP TV gives off over 2000 Lumens easy if i am not mistaken. Anyone feel free to comment on that....

Natas, if you have any pictures of the room you will be using the projector in please feel free to post. I would feel better if i could see if your light conditions compare to my own.

Also at 10 feet, you will be looking at an unzoomed picture of what, about 95in ?

Finally i was curious about zoom loss of light vs throw distance loss of light.... when given the choice, is it better to have the projkector closer to the screen but use zoom to get bigger picture, OR, better to leave the zoom out, and move the projector back further? What do you guys think on that.

I had an isf engineer I had calibrate all my Tv's in the past come to the house and give me opinions.

My room is upstairs in an open area. I have three windows. Right now with just the normal shades I can get the room during the day moderately dim...but nothing close to dark. I think the solar screens i have installed really help. Right now i have a 73 inch dlp tv and can watch just fine during the day with no glare. if i open the shades it becomes unwatchable. At night I can get that room pretty close to pitch black if I turn all lights off upstairs.

The isf calibrator said with good blackout shades and painting the room a darker color I should be fine. It won't be ideal but would work for things like watching normal tv. Obviously for serious watching I will be restricted to night time watching.

Now if I were to spend the extra cash and get something like a black diamond screen tv viewing during the day in that room would be pretty darn good according to what I have been told and seen in person. When I saw a demo of the black diamond at best buy I had them open all the curtains and turn the lights on...that was pretty close to what my room looked like during the day. It looked pretty darn good. In fact I would say it matched what I already have during the day with the dlp....maybe even better. My ultimate goal is to get the black diamond but that's 3 to 6 months down the road. For now a cheap elite screen will be in place.

To be truthful with you...I was also going to go with the epson. But after seeing the Sony in person it just handles motion better to my eyes. I watched the epson closely viewing an action scene and it drove me crazy. My wife and everyone else in the room had no idea what i was talking about. I didn't get that with the Sony. I tried 3d on both and took the glasses off on both within 2 minutes. I can't stand it in theaters and same with the home theater. I guess I am just sensitive to it all. It looks so juddery to me...like it is dropping frames when any movement happens. When a scene has someone talking And nothings going on it looks fine to me.

So with that said, if you have viewed the epson and like it then go for it. I am only going with Sony because what I saw with action. If I didn't see the motion issues I would be buying the epson now. I would actually prefer it because of the price my isf guy is actually trying to convince me to look at a dlp...but I haven't been able to find anyone locally with a good model to show off.

As to throw distance and all that I am not the person to ask. I plan on getting a 106 inch screen. From want I read the Sony doesn't loose much on brightness when zoomed in or out. I am going to rely on my isf installer to make the proper decisions on placement and all that jazz

ya it is a tough call man.... this will be my first projector and the worst i could do is get something that i cant even watch in the daytime with the blinds closed...

i did not notice this motion issue you spoke of. I did not view sports but i saw the last half of Avengers, and a fight scene from U-571 and personally had no issues with the motion. ( they told me that 5020 was calibrated in standard mode )

the reason i am waiting and really want to see the hw50 is becuase to be honest, i liked the HW30 more than the Epson5020. The Epson was definitely brighter, no doubt, but it just produced a better looking picture and some of the blacks from avengers and just overall color \ color pop and contrast looked better to my eyes.

I am new to projectors but certainly not TVs in general. So i figure if the 30 looked better slightly to me.... the hw50 should kick my ass which is what i am hoping to prove this weekend when i hunt down the hw50 in a bestbuy somewhere.

still wish i could get a daytime picture of what your area looks like otherwise i need to just go to see the epson again, and the hw50 in different light conditions and see what happens...

for the sony if you were just going cheap for the time being, what kind of screen would you do? I hear the monoprice screens are not that bad ?

you also talk about the BD screens a lot but what about the supernova Blade, i hear good things about that as well

When I say cheap I mean something like an elite screen. Something I won't feel bad about getting rid of or selling super cheap once I get enough funds for a better screen. Heck I actually have a 10 year old da-lite pull down in my garage I may end up using until then.

I talk about the bd screen because its the only one I have seen in person that can compare. I saw the fire hawk as well but it was in a room with no ambient light at all. The bd screen I have seen with lots of ambient light were very impressive. They did show some sparkling when the lights were off...but it didn't really annoy me that much. I figured I could live with that over the stuttering I noticed with the epson. And again don't let the stuttering I saw get to you. I have stared at computer monitors 8hrs everyday for over 20 years now so I notice things like that. I held onto a 20 inch CRT monitor at the house for many years before I saw a LCD I could live with.

I will try to get some pics of my area soon. It will probably be wed at the earliest.

..
To be truthful with you...I was also going to go with the epson. But after seeing the Sony in person it just handles motion better to my eyes. I watched the epson closely viewing an action scene and it drove me crazy. My wife and everyone else in the room had no idea what i was talking about. I didn't get that with the Sony. I tried 3d on both and took the glasses off on both within 2 minutes. I can't stand it in theaters and same with the home theater. I guess I am just sensitive to it all. It looks so juddery to me...like it is dropping frames when any movement happens. When a scene has someone talking And nothings going on it looks fine to me.

THAT's the experience I have been trying to get across to people. Motion on the Epson just drove me nuts. Nice to know I wasn't the only one!

maybe the motion flow just needed to be adjusted on the epson? Who knows how these places have it setup in store. I was in the Magnolia section and they had it calibrated and everything setup normally.. i honestly didnt notice and motion issues bettwen the hw30 ( still need to see the 50 ) and the epson 5020....they looked the same as far as motion to me, but colors, contrast, and blacks, i liked better on the Sony...